Stance follows match-fixing scandal that led to prominent player bans.

Valve has taken a hardline stance against "insider" gambling on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), warning those involved with professional tournaments and those who wish to get involved in the future against placing bets on the popular e-sport.

As far as Valve is concerned, anyone taking part in a CS:GO tournament is presumed to have "inside information" that would give them an unfair advantage in placing bets, even on events they aren't directly participating in. "Professional players, teams, and anyone involved in the production of CS:GO events, should under no circumstances gamble on CS:GO matches, associate with high volume CS:GO gamblers, or deliver information to others that might influence their CS:GO bets," Valve writes in a post on the official Counter-Strike blog.

The warning applies to current professional players and also "anyone who wishes to participate in a Valve-sponsored CS:GO event in the future," Valve says.

While Valve calls its stance against gambling a "recommendation," the company also says that insider betting "or even the suspicion thereof... may lead to exclusion from future Valve-sponsored events." Indeed, dozens of players implicated in a wide-ranging CS:GO match-fixing scandal last month have been banned from participating in any future Valve-sponsored tournaments (though some of those bans were later overturned). Screengrabbed text messages obtained by The Daily Dot suggest that members of a number of prominent teams were paid to throw matches during last summer's CEVO Professional League season.

Outside of the self-interest in avoiding tournament bans, Valve also asks players to "consider the substantial impact an individual professional Counter-Strike player has on the health and stability of the sport. Performing before an audience of millions of fans, you are ambassadors for your game—the strength of professional Counter-Strike comes from the integrity of its players and teams."

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Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl